They met again two days later. Hiccup had forgotten to bring one of the herbs with him as he had been so busy running around Berk that day that his visit to Gothi had been extremely short. He just hadn't had time for her piercing and scanning look, so he had just come rushing into her hut, grabbed the vials and herbs from the table and walked out. The prince was almost certain that the court physician knew that he was taking care of a dragon somewhere outside of Berk's walls and she was just waiting for him to spill the beans, but Hiccup couldn't risk it. If she told about it to somebody, it would only be a matter of time that he would be followed and he would have to say goodbye to Berk as his secret was out.

So, before they got to the wounded dragon, they had to look for that herb in the woods. That turned out to be a more challenging task than Hiccup cared to admit, and what made the task even more difficult was the fact that it was pitch black out there and their only source of light was dragon fire, but fire wasn't a very extensive light source so Hiccup and Astrid could only see a couple feet in front of them.

"Are you sure we're going to find that herb when the winter is nearly upon us? What did it look like again?" Astrid asked, her eyes fixed on the ground.

"Gothi has had no problems finding it, so I'm sure we will find it, too. And it's a white flower, it grows very close to the ground. It's the leaves that we will be needing, or at least that's the part I've seen her use and she always just throws the flowers away," Hiccup answered, intently looking at the small area that Toothless' plasma blast illuminated. Occasionally he also looked down at his feet in case he was about to step on the flower.

Their search went on for what felt like an eternity, but in reality it only took them about half an hour to find what they were looking for. Hiccup carefully took his dagger from the holster that was strapped around the arm of his flight suit and chose the flower with most leaves before cutting it from the stem. On their way back to the cave, their eyes had got so used to the light from their dragons that it took them a while to get used to the dark, so in the beginning they proceeded very slowly.

"You once mentioned that your father owns all the dragons in Briral except for Stormfly," Hiccup said and Astrid turned to look at him. Their eyes met, but it was impossible to distinguish any emotion from her face in such bad lighting. "Why?" he continued.

"Why he owns all the dragons or why he doesn't own Stormfly?" she counter questioned.

"Both."

Astrid thought about her answer for a moment. "I guess he feels he has a better control over his subjects when he can claim the ownership of the dragons. Nobody has a dragon of their own, but of course the knights have a dragon or two that they're most familiar with so it is easier to go into battle when you're riding a dragon that you already know.

"He doesn't own Stormfly because she was his gift to me many years ago. I think it was my 15th birthday at that time. He said she is all mine, so he cannot take her away from me like he can with the other dragons. But I still think that his gift was a bit silly."

"Why?" Hiccup asked, surprised by her reply.

"Because I am not supposed to be doing anything with Stormfly. Don't get me wrong, I love Stormfly with all my heart, but if I obeyed my father, she would literally be something I just goggle at in the stables. I am allowed to go flying with her twice a week so that she gets some fresh air, but that's about it. My father thinks it's not appropriate for a princess to be around dragons a lot, and yet he got me one for my birthday. Can you sense the irony?"

"That definitely has a foul stench to it," the prince agreed, trying to keep his eyes on the princess while occasionally paying attention to the ground so that he didn't trip over anything.

Their eyes had gotten used to the dark now and it was slightly easier to see where they were going. Neither had wandered around these woods before so the ground was unknown to them. Hiccup only knew the general size of the forest as he and Toothless had once flown over it to add it to a map. He, however, knew that they should head towards the north as the western part of the woods belonged to another kingdom and the last thing they wanted was to be captured, especially since it wasn't a kingdom that Berk was an ally with. The prince was positive that it would be at least a couple miles before they would reach the border of that kingdom, but he didn't want to risk more than he already was.

"The strict rules have led me to disobeying my father. I am so lucky to have Heather as my friend as she has taught me so many things along the years. It is some common belief that a princess should be seen rather than heard so my days consist of my mother teaching me how to live up to that and I can't just stand it. I usually sneak out almost every night because living in the castle drives me insane, that's why I was in the woods that night when we first met."

Hiccup was in search of words. He wanted to say something a bit more interesting than 'I am sorry to hear that', but he hadn't expected Astrid to open up like that. The prince allowed himself a couple seconds to munch on what the princess had just said. He understood why she was frustrated with her life – he was pretty sure that he would be ten times worse as he had a tendency to take things slightly more dramatically than others.

The prince's mind travelled back to the moment when they were hiding from the knights of Berk in that small cave. Astrid's annoyance at his judging words made much more sense now and he found himself regretting saying them. Hiccup wanted to believe he wouldn't have said those words had they had that conversation when he no longer considered the princess an archenemy, but the truth was that he didn't know if that was true – how could he?

"So that's why you couldn't get Stormfly any help after the accident in the woods?" Hiccup finally said as he was unable to form his other thoughts into words.

"I tried, but nobody took it that seriously. We don't have poisonous, sharp weapons laying around in Briral so people thought I was overreacting over some little wound. It took ages for my father to finally believe me and send a physician to have a look at her. When Stormfly returned to Briral and she was back to her normal health, many people kept telling me that I should leave dragons to those that understand them. The nerve," she said, spitting out the last part. She looked very irritated by the memory that was currently occupying her mind.

Before Hiccup had time to react, Astrid collected herself and she turned to look at the prince with a curious look. "So, what's your story?"

"My story?"

"How you and Toothless became a team, what made you travel alone in the woods that night, anything about your life in Berk that is bothering you. You know, the basics."

Hiccup snorted at 'basics'. His mind instantly recollected the moment when he and Toothless bonded and his features turned all soft at the fond memory. He shifted his gaze to the ground and they leapt over a fallen tree before he began talking.

"I was 15 and we had just heard about the existence of dragons and that you had already begun training and taming them–"

"Oh yeah, I remember my father being furious when he heard Berk had followed our lead."

"Uhm, right. Anyway, we didn't know how to get to them as we had no clue about a dragon's behaviour, so we just followed the rumours about the possible locations where the dragons were living. We were by a big swamp when I found Toothless. He was about to drown in the swamp, half of his wings was already hidden underneath the surface. He was obviously tired and he didn't have any strength left to get out himself, so I rushed to get help and with the help of the knights and some rope, we could pull Toothless out of the swamp. We soon noticed that he was missing the other part of his tail and there were several injuries across his body, I still don't know what caused him to lose his tail like that, but I just felt like I had to help him somehow.

"So we took him to Berk – that journey took three times longer than normally as we had an exhausted dragon with us – and we began to clean his wounds and had a better look at the damaged tail. At first we didn't know it would matter so much since we thought he would only need his wings to fly, but once Toothless recovered, it became obvious that he couldn't fly so we had to start planning how to help him.

"Back then I was still living my arrogant life and normally I would've just waited until our subjects did the work, but I felt some sort of strange connection with Toothless and I felt as though I was the one who had to help him. So I started visiting him every single day, and eventually we formed a bond. I still remember the rush of excitement when his snout touched my palm for the first time and he let me come near him."

They both looked at Toothless that was walking in front of them. Their eyes trailed on the fake tail made of leather and metal. The prince still remembered the triumphant feeling when they had finally cracked the mystery behind the tail and how to make it work so that Toothless could fly and be flown on. It had felt better than winning a battle. In fact, now Hiccup wondered how he could've even compared those things back then.

"I sneak out to fly with Toothless when I want to have some alone time. I am allowed to go beyond the borders of Berk, but I must always be accompanied by at least one knight, so the only way to go alone is to do it in secret. It is also my way to clear my head if there's been something that bothered me during the day, or if I feel like my responsibilities and the expectations people have of me are too much. When I'm in the sky, it's just me and Toothless and my royal titles don't follow me at my heels."

"Would your father be mad if he found out that you've been sneaking out?" Astrid asked, interest evident in her voice.

They were now standing by the cave entrance and it seemed as though neither of them remembered why they were here in the first place as they didn't move a muscle to go inside the cave. They were just looking at each other in the dark.

"I think he would be. At least he would make guards stand by my chambers every single night to make sure I am not sneaking out. He doesn't want me to be reckless and risk my life, as if I'm not doing that when I am fighting for my life in tournaments or in a battle, but I suppose that's a different thing in his books."

Astrid hummed. "My father's mad about tournaments too. Since he doesn't have a son, he competes himself. He always wins because no one dares to bring shame upon him, and you can see that he's not the best because he hasn't had to fling his sword since he was crowned as King of Briral."

They stood in silence for a moment before they both seemed to remember what they were meeting for, so they made their way inside the cave where the dragon still was. It was fast asleep, and it was no longer breathing unevenly. It was clear that it was recovering fast. Hiccup assumed that the Timberjack would do well on its own from now on, but something at the back of his mind was not liking this thought. He had started to like these nightly meetings with Astrid and he didn't want them to end just yet.

"It looks much better now," Astrid said in thought after she had taken a proper look at the dragon. "It's giving signs of life and the wounds have healed almost completely."

Hiccup just nodded while rummaging the leather pouch for the other herbs and potions. He gave the flower to Astrid so she could pick the leaves. She sat down on the ground with her knees bent and legs to one side and she carefully placed the leaves on her lap as she took them from the stem.

"Do you think we still need to come back here after tonight?" she continued once she realised that she wasn't getting a verbal response from the prince.

The tone she said that in made Hiccup raise up his head to look whether her face resembled what he had heard. There had definitely been hope in her voice, as if she was hoping for him to say 'yes'. She was staring at the prince with an expectant look, or at least that was what it looked like in the very dim light.

Hiccup spoke before his mind started working: "I think we need to come back one more time, just to be sure. I don't think some of these wounds have fully healed yet, so they still need treatment."

Astrid hummed in agreement. "Great, let's do it."

Once they finished the routine that had already become familiar to them, they walked outside of the cave and just looked around them. Just like last time, Toothless and Stormfly were having the time of their lives as they played around together. Thankfully they were wise creatures and they didn't make much noise as they ran around the clearing.

The realisation that this could be the last time they met felt heavy on Hiccup's shoulders. He didn't understand why he was reacting to the fact so strongly, but a part of him was dearly wishing for the night to linger on forever.

His mind was being stupid.

"Hiccup," Astrid began and the prince looked at her. "I need to tell you something."

Right after she finished her sentence, a loud crack echoed somewhere in the forest and it startled both of them. Their dragons were on the other side of the clearing so it couldn't have been them. That only meant there was something else in the forest, too.

"What was that?" she asked and her hand was reaching for the handle of her axe. How come hadn't Hiccup noticed it was there?

"I don't know, but don't worry, I'm here so nothing will happen," Hiccup said reassuringly and he, too, put his hand on his sword, ready to draw it out.

"Funny, because I was about to say the exact same thing," she replied.

The cracking noise appeared again and drew out their weapons. Toothless and Stormfly sensed their tension and galloped to Hiccup and Astrid's side, Toothless growling at the darkness before them. They stood there with their weapons out for a moment but they couldn't hear any sound apart from the wind and Toothless' low, threatening growl.

"Who is it there?" Hiccup shouted, not sure if it was wise. "Declare yourself."

They waited. No answer.

"Maybe it was an animal or something. Like a deer or a dragon," Astrid suggested as she put her axe in the holster she was carrying in her back with a sigh of relief. "Whatever it was, at least it decided to leave us alone."

"Yeah, thank gods we didn't have to put up a fight or anything," Hiccup said, relief clear in his voice too.

Toothless and Stormfly also became less tense and they stopped glaring in the general direction of where the sound came from.

"So, what were you about to tell me?" the prince asked suddenly. He put the sword back in the scabbard and metal against metal let out a piercing sound through the woods. "You know, before that sound–"

"Hiccup, look out!" Astrid said in a panicked voice and forcefully pushed herself against Hiccup, sending them both to the ground. A shot of fire missed Astrid's hair by a couple inches.

There was a loud roar that was coming from the cave. Toothless instantly sensed the danger his human was in so with a couple jumps he situated himself by the entrance, blocking it completely and glaring at the Timberjack murderously.

"What the– what happened?" Hiccup stuttered in utter confusion. The weight of Astrid on top of him made it hard for him to breathe.

"I don't know," Astrid said bewildered, her eyes fixed on Toothless. "We must have frightened the dragon."

"Maybe my sword woke it up," the prince suggested. His heart was beating fast from the adrenaline. "Thanks for saving my life though, I wasn't paying attention at all."

Astrid turned her attention towards Hiccup and for a moment they just looked each other in the eyes. The prince had never seen Astrid's face so up close, he could feel her breath brush against his cheek in uneven patterns. Even in the dark he could see just how beautiful she was.

"Don't mention it," she then said in a whisper and smiled. She rolled off him and stood up, offering her hand for Hiccup to take. The prince did so and they both spent a moment cleaning the dirt off their clothes.

It took a while for Hiccup to calm Toothless down so that the dragon let him get closer to the Timberjack. It was now fully awake, clearly frightened by the Night Fury and possibly the events that had just happened. The prince approached the dragon, carefully thinking trough every step before he took it, trying his best to not scare the creature even more. Once next to it, he placed his hand on its snout and bit by bit the Timberjack began to calm down.

"Everything alright in there?" he heard Astrid ask at the entrance.

"Yeah," Hiccup breathed out. "I think it's calmed down now."

The prince left the wounded dragon and exited the cave. It was beginning to be late and they both realised it was time for them to part ways and return to their kingdoms.

"Hiccup," Astrid began once again. "About what I wanted to tell you."

"Yea?"

"I–" she hesitated. "Briral will be in Berk in three days."

She said it very fast and Hiccup almost missed half of the words. It took him a moment to form the words into a sentence in his brain.

"Three days?" he repeated as he took his helmet off the ground. He didn't yet put it on, but he waited for Astrid to speak.

"Yes. I don't know what they're planning, I have just everyone heard when they will leave."

Hiccup considered her words for a couple seconds before nodding. "That will give Berk enough time to be prepared. Thank you for letting me know."

They both smiled at each other. The prince put the helmet on and they walked up to Toothless that was unsurprisingly accompanied by Stormfly. In no time they were sitting on the saddles on their dragons.

"I am sorry that I can't stop them," Astrid said sadly. "I don't want another war."

"I am sorry too," Hiccup replied. "But once we rule, things will be different."

It was the first time he had said that out loud, but giving voice to that thought felt good.

Great, even.

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